Basically, I've been playing Shenmue 3 since November 19th and I felt like nothing else existed for the past three weeks. Being a Shenmue fanboy and a backer, I felt very personal towards this game. And I finished it very recentely. And I have many thoughts, many thoughts.
It this a great adventure game? Yes it is.
Is it a great sequel to Shenmue 2? Falls a few notches down, but still a great experience.
Is the combat good? Yes, it is. Awkward at first but super fun once you get the hang of it.
Does Shenmue 3 take some lessons from more modern games? It's still very much rooted in this own classic gameplay but it does take some baby steps to make things a little more interesting.
Was it worth the wait? As a Shenmue fan, I think it was totally worth it.
Are there downsides to this? Yes, there are. While the story seems to chug along at this own deliberate pace because it's clear that the devs want you to experience everything as much as possible. The ending might come as too sudden, a dissapointment and a setback, but in all honesty, the one thing that it has better than Shenmue 2, is that unlike the previous game, this ending is far less ambiguous than Shenmue 2's ending. S2's ending while epic in it's own way was far too vague to make sense of anything. There is a clearer path in this game's ending, is what I'm saying.
Shenmue fans will enjoy the game for the most part. The newbies might find a few odd things here and there to take notice.
